The Lake Forest College women's hockey team edged out visiting Marian University 3-2 Friday night in the opener of the teams' quarterfinal series in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Slaats Cup Playoffs.

Marian took the early lead on a power play goal six minutes into the contest but the Foresters pulled even with a 4-on-4 score at the 10:17 mark. Senior defenseman Holly Kiernan's lead pass met freshman forward Alex Luke in stride at mid-ice and she beat the defender to the goal. Luke's shot was saved by the Sabre goalie but junior forward Jenna Fryar was there to put in the rebound for her fifth goal of the season.
 
The visitors, however, regained the lead with another power play goal just 68 seconds later and were head 2-1 at the end of the period.
 
Lake Forest tied the game again at the 6:52 mark of the second on Luke's fifth of the year. She skated out from behind the Marian goal and scored on what appeared to be a low percentage shot from a difficult angle below the left circle.
 
What turned out to be the game-winning goal came from freshman defenseman Delaney Zerfass at the 9:07 mark of the third period. Her shot through traffic from the top of the left circle found it's way into the net for the first power play goal and game-winner of her collegiate career.
 
Lake Forest out-shot the Sabres 37-29 and won 36 of the game's 66 faceoffs.

Forester junior goaltender Chelsea Denniss stopped 27 of 29 shots in goal, including all 21 she faced in the final two periods combined, to earn the victory. She raised her save percentage on the season to .923 and is now tied-for-eighth in program history with 14 wins in her career.

The victory improved Lake Forest's record this season to 12-14-0 and dropped Marian's to 13-13-0.

The same two teams will face off in the series finale Saturday at 5:00 p.m. A tie or victory for the Foresters will send them to the semifinals of the Slaats Cup Playoff while Marian needs to win the 5:00 game and an ensuing 20-minute minigame to advance.